Honored: The Embers Of The Flame

Chapter 2: Drastic Measures

Authors note: this took me a while to work on between having my buddy help edit things and actually figuring out where to go with the story I believe I've made this chapter as good as I currently can so I hope you enjoy.

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As I get ready to go retrieve Nanaka’s body and kill that man, I feel an immense and agonizing pain shoot through my left eye, my hand shoots up to grab it out of instinct.However, as I grab my eye I feel the arrow that he shot into it still there, so I grab and yank it out, and upon doing so, I feel a sharp and stinging pain in my eye socket. I nearly collapsed due to the pain, the phantom emptiness in my heart, I could not heal nor close the wound. It was a hollow hole, clean through my heart. Despite the aching pain, I pushed through as I straightened up and prepared to chase after the masked man. With my flame abilities, I could sense his heat signature. so I begin running his way as fast as possible. However, when I’m 10 meters away I’m interrupted by a dark figure wearing a cloak and a toad mask.

“Whoever you are MOVE.” The figure didn’t seem to listen as they pulled out a Dadao blade from inside of their cloak, but when doing so I notice they have a feminine figure indicating they’re most likely a woman. “Don’t make me hurt you-!?!?” Cutting me off they appear in front of me in an attempt to slice at my neck; I react in time grabbing their wrist, I quickly snag away their blade, but they react with a quick and precise kick at my left eye, which I barely blocked—due to my impairment in my left eye, rendering me unable to see; making it an available blind spot. Quickly, I grip the handle of my blade as flames licked the metals surface, I steady my position before performing a swift, slick slice to their right shoulder, which successfully severs their entire right arm from their shoulder. They jump back and hold onto wound.

“Are you gonna move now?” In response, the figure only grunted— and by that, helped confirm my suspicions that the figure was possibly a woman. But then again, that didn’t matter to me because they’re actively impeding on my revenge. “So, since you don’t want to answer me, I have no choice but to take your head.” I raise the blade above my head ready to kill her.

“WAIT-!”

“SHUT UP!” Cutting her off, I swing the sword down upon her, Stopping just when the blade reaches her, a hairs length apart. “Are you going to answer me now?” Nodding her head, I continued, “good…now, why did you interrupt me?”

“Because, my master ordered it since he knew that his attacks wouldn't kill you.” After she explaining I couldn’t help but to burst out laughing.

“Hahahaha…well then, your master is a fool to not have killed me, and you both will pay dearly for that.” I go to continue but she cuts me off.

“I will not be the last to stop you.”

I chuckled at her..“Of course not, and you wont be the only person dying today.” Deciding enough is enough, I raise the sword before swinging it down towards her neck, severing her head, and in turn, ending her life. I looked down at her lifeless body for a moment before multiple heat signatures suddenly flare up nearby and heading straight towards me at top speeds, I stop paying attention to the dead body of the woman and now to the oncoming offense, I grabbed my katana, my fingers curling around the handle firmly and getting into a stance.

After several minutes of waiting, they finally arrive. By the end of it all, they were all surrounding me. I assumed they were acquainted with the woman I had just slain, as they're all wearing dark cloaks, obscuring their bodies with various animal masks. The main one I noticed was the one wearing a tanuki mask, they were the largest out of the group, and weilded a large club with spikes on it, and with noticing that, I prepared to cut them down, but before I can react, the smallest of the group was upon me— and before I could blink, they were already preparing to use their tanto to gut me. I couldn’t allow that, so I drew my katana, flames bringing it ablaze, and cutting them down in one slice. But as soon as I cut them down they turn into dust with the wind  blowing them away into nothing, and I couldn’t help but stand there, stunned that they weren’t real all along. But before I could relax, I sensed another heat signature appear right behind me, causing me to whip my head behind me only to see dust yet again. This time, however, I activate my fire and sent a ring of it out into the forest hopefully stopping whoever was doing that while also ignoring the eerie feeling that began to pool in my gut. I continued to trudge forward towards where the masked man seemed to be.